Mastering Git Amend: Refine Your Commit History

The git commit --amend command is important to know if you want to refine your project’s commit history. This feature corrects minor errors in your most recent commit, for e.g. updating the Git commit message, including overlooked files, or tweaking the commit's contents.

This post delves into the usage of the git commit --amend command.

How to modify the commit message in Git?

To change your last commit's message without affecting its content, you can use:

git commit --amend -m "New commit message"

This command opens your default text editor, allowing you to rewrite the commit message. Once you save and exit the editor, Git updates the commit with your new message.

How to include missed changes in your last commit in Git?

To add changes you forgot to your most recent commit, first stage them with git add. Then, execute:

git commit --amend --no-edit

This action amends the previous commit to include the new changes without modifying the commit message. If you want to update the message as well, simply leave out the --no-edit flag.

How to amend a commit without changing its content in Git?

If you need to amend a commit to change metadata like the author's information, without altering its content or message, run:

git commit --amend --reset-author

This command updates the commit's author info to your current Git configurations, keeping the rest of the commit unchanged.

Things to remember

• Amending public commits: Changing a commit that you've already pushed to a shared repository can complicate things for others who have begun work based on this commit. Always communicate with your team before amending a public commit to decide if a force push is necessary.
• Force pushing after amending: Once you amend a commit that's been pushed, you'll need to force push it to the remote repository with git push --force or git push --force-with-lease. Proceed with caution, as these commands can overwrite remote history.